Try this? Watchwww.youtube.com

It really depends on what you're talking about. If you're talking about commercial hip hop aka rap vs all the other stuff that still has that true hip hop feel.

nm

Most scratchers will always prefer 80's and 90's East Coast music, regardless. Scratching Trap beats takes a completely different skill set and use of rhythm. I've even noticed some folks only know how to scratch good at one speed...it's hard to master scratching on 65-75 BPM songs, since you can really double time everything you do.

In general, today's Rap isn't geared towards lyricism or battle-boasting mentality, it's heavily focused on materialism, strippers, kitchen cooking, plug promoting, self-snitching or drug dealing. If you can translate today's Raps subject matters into a battle set, more power to you but I don't even think it will come off very well in a set. Also, the BPMs are just too slow to make anything meaningful.

Today's youth don't seem like they'd even appreciate scratching over their favorite tracks. Absolutely 0% of today's songs feature scratching in them so anything you do over the latest hot basura will just sound like noise. Their mentality is probably for you to just Press Play. I will say, DJ Babey Drew is pretty good scratching over these slow Rap beats.

DJ Gaffle pretty much nailed it. People could give a rats ass about scratching today, they really just want you to press play. Heck they want you to put the song on repeat. I can't see myself scratching below 70 BPM, it just doesn't sound good to me.

A few of Mustard's tracks surprisingly do have scratching, "Who do you love" did. His album cuts had more than that one though.

Not only is today's hip hop not made for scratching or turntablism, it's not even made for dancing. So much of this stuff is in the 60-70bpm range, or even worse, 50bpm. And the kids don't dance to it, they just bop their heads to it. Ugh.

yup. I've said it a million times, I no longer know what is expected of me as a dj in clubs now. Heres a typical night for me

Guy1: Hey man noones dancing, make them girls get at it!

Me: Sure, what should I play

Guy1: [insert rich homie quan 50 bpm song here]

Me: Cool, *plays song

Crowd throws up their hands and cheer, smile, look confused, stands there

Guy1: Man what are you doing noones dancing play [insert 50 bpm young thug song here]

Me: K *plays song

Crowd LOUUUD cheer, hands up, smile, look confused, stands there

Guy2: Maaaan dude we wanna see the girls twerk try playing....

Me: Dude I got this *plays 100 bpm song designed to actually make girls dance

Group of girls: Why are you playinf this, we cant dance to this play something we can twerk to

Me: K, like what?

Group of girls: I dont know

Me: well what do you normally twerk to

Group of girls: We don't

Me: .....


Group of girls : Oh I know play [Insert 40 bpm youtube song here]

Me: sign...ok

Girls: YAAAAYYY.....back to the floor....confused look......stands there

this

and yea new rap music you can get off some dope as cuts and juggles but the timing is totally different and takes some getting used to. For guys who did DnB in the 90s probably can closely mimick the timing required. I taught myself how to cut over really slow trap beats and to be honest its a lot easier once you get the muscle memory, in fact its a lot easier and your scratches can really breath because the tracks are so slow and leave so much room for you to fill up with scratch rhythms

Ya, that pretty much sums it up. I feel your pain. It's a paradox. They don't know how to dance to the music they like, and if you play music they should be able to dance to (100bpm) they don't know what to do with themselves because it's not the music they listen to nowadays. I want someone to be held accountable for making this slow tempo hip hop crap popular!

That's why I always my dancehall and soca sets.... Not a lot of DJS scratch to Soca...I can count off about 9 in my head right now including me. More of them out there but it's just what I can think of now.

Never take advice from guys about what songs will make girls dance.

Notice in my example the girls advice was worse than the guys with the same outcome

Sounds like maybe the whole program needs a reboot.

Is the place making any money?

Today's dj's aren't made for yesterday's hiphop.

That makes you a jukebox, not a DJ

When he asked the guy "sure, what should I play?" I think he meant it in a "I give up, what the hell do you want from me?!" way, not a "my wish is your command" jukebox kind of way. That's how I read it at least.

Tons

this. If ive played all the songs that I know are hot currently and all the sings that are sure things historically, and people are still going on about it than im totally open to new suggestions, especially from THE people im trying to get a response from

I agree with this, ever since I started actually listening to what the people want to hear I get booked waaaay more than I did before. I mean I could just play what I want and what I think people should hear but unfortunately DJ's arent tastemakers like they were, granted we still inspired pop culture and the industry as a whole but people rarely look to DJs for music they look to spotify, itunes, FM radio (not the DJ but the playlist) in some markets DJs are forced to regurgitate (spell check) the bull shit.

ya. This may differ in different markets but in my market, as a full time resident, playing 8+ hour shifts Wednesday through Sunday at the same spot....there's simply going to be a balance of being an artist and just playing what the people want because the people who just happened to wander in while walking down the street on a Wednesday night at 9pm arent looking to have their mind blown by your eclectic track selection, they just wanna have a been and hear some radio crap song.

My personal process is to take what people request (almost everyone requests the exact same shit now adays so its easy to see which ones to listen to) play it to the crowd and see the response. If it works I then take it home and figure out a way to put it into a routine or chain and figure out a way to present it uniquely as to not just be a jukebox for it the next go around.

Man Bezzle, I can't even imagine. I don't have a residency - mostly mobile gigs and rentals, but this sounds horrible.

I did pick up a bar gig a few months ago as a favor to a radio DJ buddy. I spun there a grand total of 4 times over 3 months. It went like this...

1st time out - I was pretty nervous. I stroll in with turntables and spin 'em up. Right off the bat I'm mixing and scratching - even to some older class rock stuff like ZZ Top and Motley Crue (mixing primarily to that stuff). From there it was 90's hits, some 120 bpm disco house tracks, motown, and into hip-hop for the majority of the night. No one's telling me what to play, no one is bothering me to "turn this crap off and play something good." And everyone seems to be having a good time and even dancing a bit. I was shocked! Pretty fun night overall.

2nd time (and 3rd - 4th) - I show up and get smiles and waves from staff. A manager tells me that he wishes they could have a DJ like me every weekend. "You know, one who mixes the songs together like that" he says. I try a few new things and plug in some obscure songs that I literally would have to blow the dust off (if they were still on vinyl) and people are happy. I'd love to go back.

Question is - Do you get a chance to get creative at all or do you feel locked into the same gig every time? I assume that different week nights bring different crowds, but it sounds like the patrons show up with predisposed expectations of what your job is all about and how you're going to do it. Can you throw a curve ball at 'em once in a while?

Sheep don't do curve balls... they like it slow and straight across the plate.

It's true. Sheep only like a song if they've heard it on the radio a million times. Or if it's a brand new song that they haven't heard a million times then the prerequisite is that it has to be a "safe" artists like Taylor Swift, Pitbull, Katy Perry etc.

I get what your saying. it's mainly the reason I have never wanted a residency in a commercial venue to be honest. I just wouldn't enjoy it. It would feel like work from the moment I set foot in the club.

Well said. Sad, but well said.

I've been on the 60bpm thing for a minute now and when I play 90bpm stuff it feels slow to me. The 'turn up' 60bpm stuff is more like 120bpm with two less snares per bar.

That's true, it all depends on the energy of the song. But take Drake's new album for example, it makes me want to take a nap lol.

You win the internet. lol

"Swing Low Sweet Chariot" is a party anthem compared to that album.

Baha!

No,its NOT Just You, play what you enjoy,and also stay away from some of those songs,that you feel dont belong out there anymore.

has dj,recently gone back to the 70s remixes,that are really good. we have a dj here,that looks for the 70s/80s/ remixes, with that new get up and get it going type of dancing again. just something about those two decades. esp some song were extremely hot.

I with you man.

The problem with the music today is the DJ's have to be the one's to break the cycle and the monotony.

I feel you Bezzle, at my residency people tried to pull that on me and found ways to switch tempo's, genres etc to mess with everyone's head.

Now people will pretty much dance to everything because there is a touch of everything.

Also you can do some dope scratches over this tempo, you just have to change your rhythm and train of though.

Haven't read the entire thread. But yeah. The op has a point. When songs like Coco are around the 60bpm mark. You can't really scratch to that shit. It's much easier to scratch around 100bpm

You would have to double time on tracks that slow.

I think its not just about the tempo of current hip hop, it's also that current hip hop doesn't have a sound that scratching sounds good overtop of. Plus most kids that like today's current mainstream hip hop couldn't care less about any of the pillars of hip hop never mind scratching.

id really love to say WHAT I do think about hip.hop & rap.

but nevermind. i know i will have a great Christmas Weekend.

There is still good hip hop out there though...

I definitely like cutting over the We The People by ATCQ.

Looped the intro and thought is was nice.

some dudes can…
Watchwww.youtube.com

I swear this so accurate!!!!!!!

VaZee is dope, I've seen some of his other videos.

But yeah you have to scratch in double time to make it sound good, it's just not easy.

Just play shit from 2003 and a few new bangers in between

Ha ha, lots of people are still stuck in the 90's. All in all, you just have to be able to sort the good stuff from the crap like any era.

preach